The present invention relates to processes for making a 5 disposable wearing article having elastically stretchable. The present invention is based on, and claims priority from, Japanese Application Serial No. 2002-362501, filed Dec. 13, 2002, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
In the art of disposable wearing articles such as disposable diapers, it is well known to provide its crotch region with an elastically stretchable properties. For example, a process for elastication of a base material layer disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1998-513070A is adapted to elasticize the base material layer used in an elastic pants-type article. Specifically, the base material layer is provided with elastic members attached thereto so that the elastic members are stretchable in a transverse direction but not in a longitudinal direction in the waist region of the wearing article and stretchable in the longitudinal direction but not in the transverse direction of the wearing article in the crotch region toward a midpoint of which the elastic members contract.
In the known wearing article as has been cited above, the direction in which the elastic members are stretchable in the crotch region must be turned by an angle of 90° with respect to the direction in which the elastic members are stretchable in the waist region. To achieve this, the, apparatus as well as the operation is inevitably complicated. In the wearing article obtained by this known process, the crotch region contracts in back-and-forth direction and thereby pulls an absorbent member such as a napkin attached to the inner side of the wearing article upward so as to come in close contact with a wearer's skin. At the same time, such contraction pulls the waist-surrounding upper end zone of the wearing article downward and thereby makes it difficult to stabilize the wearing article on a wearer.